Mark Davis, post-presser: “Los Angeles is a possibility. Wherever is a possibility”

-Quickly, because I’m writing a column on Mark Davis’ impressive first public Q & A moment and the whole scene at Reggie McKenzie’s introductory presser as Raiders GM…

It was impressive. Things made sense.

Maybe this really is a new and different Raiders era–and you could sense that Mark Davis and Reggie McKenzie absolutely wanted to project that.

Davis sat at the podium comfortably, answered directly, passed along the questions McKenzie could and should handle, and was quite patient through some tedious moments.

Then Davis spoke to several of us after the cameras shut down–reminiscent of the greatest give-and-take moments of his father–and was free-and-easy with the discussion then, too.

Including a very notable response about the Raiders’ future–Davis had already
answered my question during the press conference about his long-term ownership (he says he’s keeping the team, period).

But where will the Raiders be located for the long-term? Davis left the door wide open–could be LA, could be Santa Clara with the 49ers, could be anywhere…

—–MARK DAVIS, post-presser gaggle transcript/

-Q: Did the fact that Reggie had played for the Raiders attract you to him as a candidate? Was that a factor?

-DAVIS: You know, it was and it wasn’t. It wasn’t at the top of it. But obviously it’s a bonus, is what it is, because he does know about the organization and has a feel for it.

-Q: How recently have you talked to the 49ers about Santa Clara?

-DAVIS: I have not talked to the 49ers at all about Santa Clara.

(Couldn’t hear this part)… Northern California stuff. And I’ve been looking at certain places up here in Northern California but I’ve also been talking to be people in Southern California, that have talked to me.

We’re trying to get something done here.

-Q: Is it important for you to stay in Northern California?

-DAVIS: It’s important to get a new stadium. That’s really important. I mean, it’s such a competitive business. It really is competitive. We can’t compete for a lot of the players that other teams can, at times.

-Q: Is Los Angeles a possibility?

-DAVIS: Yeah, Los Angeles is a possibility. Wherever’s a possibility. We need a stadium.

-Q: Do you have a timetable on when you need a new stadium?

-DAVIS: The timetable is yesterday. So that’s where it is. We’ve got to get a stadium. We’ve got to get that done.

-Q: Is there an offer on the table to go to LA?

-DAVIS: There’s offers on the table, but I wouldn’t talk about them… If there was an offer that we liked, we would’ve taken it. Let me put it that way. And there’s not.

-Q: How empowered is Reggie to hire a bunch of people?

-DAVIS: Reggie’s totally empowered.

-Q: Personnel department, the whole thing?

-DAVIS: Absolutely.

-Q: Would you expect a lot of hires there?

-DAVIS: Umm, no. He’s got a structure that we’ve looked at. And it’s not a lot of hires. But there’s hires.

-Q: Why not talk to other GM candidates? Why stop at Reggie, one and that’s it?

-DAVIS: The problem… there was a three-month process where I couldn’t talk to any of them–they were with other teams. You couldn’t talk to ’em.

We saw each other in Green Bay, it was the most awkward hello in the world. By that time, I’d come to the conclusion after doing all the research that Reggie was the man I wanted.

Why talk to a bunch of other people when it’s so competitive out there, who knows if somebody else wouldn’t have (hired him)?

It was an hour after our game, the last game, I asked Amy to send a request for him to Green Bay to see if they would give us the permission to talk to him. And thankfully they did.

-Q: What did John Madden add to the process?

-DAVIS: He was fantastic, just fantastic. Again, I’m not going to get into specifics, but he really was very helpful to me. To get us started…

We met for about four hours with Reggie, then John took off, Reggie and I met for another two hours and came to the decision that we were going to do it.

-Q: How do you like this gig so far?

-DAVIS: My gig?

-Q: It’s a pretty big job.

-DAVIS: It is, but I’ve got a lot of people around me to talk to, people like Ron and John, people who have run organizations and done those kinds of things.

It’s not that much different, to be honest.

-Q: Is the most important thing what you said, you know what you don’t know?

-DAVIS: Absolutely, yeah, it really is. You have to know what you don’t know, and get the right people to do it, that can do it.

-Q: Could you bring in a senior adviser like Ken Herock or even Ron?

-DAVIS: No, but Ken actually played a crucial role during the season for me. Because he came in and helped evaluate the personnel department and just everything that was going on and kinda was a conduit between the coach and myself.

Ken was very helpful.

-Q: Could he be brought in?

-DAVIS: No, he’s happy doing what he’s doing. And again, everybody brought in is going to be (from) Reggie.

-Q: It sounded like you have some regrets about the Carson Palmer trade. Would you do it over again?

-DAVIS: Yeah, I probably would. Again, I signed off on that deal. It wouldn’t have happened without Hue Jackson because, first off, he wasn’t on my mind.

The injury to Jason happened, my father’s funeral was the next day, then the trading deadline was at 1 o’clock the next day. So the timing and everything… Hue got it going and everything and then came to me and said, ‘I can do it, we can get this done.’

The price was high. And Ken Herock came in and helped a little bit in the negotiations on that, and got the price (down), at least if we don’t get to the championship game it’s down to a second-round draft pick.

And if Ken would’ve had about three more hours, they probably would’ve been giving us draft choices and say, ‘take the guy.’

But I definitely signed off on that and I still sign off.

I like Carson Palmer, I really do. And I think with Darren McFadden and some of those receivers that were hurt–his receivers were hurt a lot–I think he’s got a chance to be pretty good.

-Q: In the previous era, the coach reported directly to the managing partner.

-DAVIS: Correct.

-Q: Is the new coach going to report to you or to the GM?

-DAVIS: The coach goes to the general manager, Reggie and I speak. There’s one line of communication. That was Reggie’s… one of his main concerns. He just wants to know that people know where to go, that people aren’t running around other people and everything else. There’s a structure. And I totally agree with that.

-Q: Can you say how long a contract Reggie got?

-DAVIS: I don’t think I said. (Laughs.) No comment on term.

-Q: Long-term, at least?

-DAVIS: Yeah.

-Q: What ultimately sold you on Reggie?

-DAVIS: I think his 18 years of building his own credibility. He’s worked at every aspect of scouting and personnel departments.

As John Madden said after we talked, he said, ‘Well, what’d you think?’ I told him, ‘I think I’m going to go ahead and do it.’ And he said, ‘Well, Reggie’s a man’s man.’ And he really is.

-Q: Were you involved in bringing the former teammates here?

-DAVIS: Yes… Well, and others. Might want to talk to Jerry Robinson, he was his roommate with the Raiders.

-Q: What would you liked to see in a head coach?

-DAVIS: I’m not going to comment. I don’t want to piss him off his first day. (Laughs.)

-Q: You grew up in this organization…

-DAVIS: Well, I haven’t grown up yet, but I was raised in this organization.

-Q: I’ve never seen a season like this last one… How did you handle it?

-DAVIS: I don’t know how tough it really was, except for my father passing, that was really tough. But the structure of the organization, believe it or not, it was pretty good.

Just needed a line of communication between the coach and myself that had previously been coach and my father. Once we got that, it went pretty smooth. But then we lost our quarterback that week, the next week we lose our running back… we were still 7-4. It wasn’t that tough.

-Q: The games were so crazy.

-DAVIS: That was tough. But as far as the organization moving forward, it was pretty smooth.

-Q: Did you talk to Hue today?

-DAVIS: No, I didn’t. I wasn’t here at the time. I came down a little later.

-Q: Was it tough watching Tebow on Sunday?

-DAVIS: You know, he played great Sunday. I have to give it to him.

-Q: Did you think, what if we had won the division?

-DAVIS: I thought about that, sure. What-ifs.

-Q: Can you pay top dollar for coach?

-DAVIS: You have to talk to Reggie.

-Q: Any budget on that?

-DAVIS: We haven’t talked about it.

-Q: Thoughts on Niners?

-DAVIS: Fantastic. Their defense is unbelievable. Jim Harbaugh has taken the talent he has on offense and managed it so there are no turnovers. The defense gets the turnovers I think they’re what, plus 25.

-Q: Thoughts on Harbaugh when he was here?

-DAVIS: Love him. I wished him the best of everything when he got hired.

-Q: You know lots of stats for a non-football guy?

-DAVIS: I pretty much know the game pretty well. Like I said, I’m not an expert. That’s why I want to hire experts.

-Q: Going to Warriors tonight?

-DAVIS: Actually Reggie’s going. He got my tickets too. (Laughs.)

-Q: How much football did you talk with Al?

-DAVIS: We talked constantly about it. I remember growing up when it used to be on the films you had to thread through the projector. I learned how to thread a projector pretty early on.

-Q: Ever say, ‘Dad let’s do something else?’

-DAVIS: Oh no, no, no. That was his life. It was all his life. It’s all he wanted to do to do it.

-Q: Was there a transition over the past few years?

-DAVIS: It wasn’t like he handed it over. He always gave me the opportunity to do whatever I wanted to do, whether I wanted to be more involved or not involved.

What I did is I looked at special projects, certain things. The merchandise operation. We weren’t selling our own merchandise so we ended up putting up stores and stuff like that.
The Internet was something I was deeply involved in. Just different projects along the way I found ways to get involved but not be in the office every day.

-Q: Can you still be friends with players? Does that have to change?

-DAVIS: Hope not. I hope not, because they’re human beings, friends of mine. Anybody who puts on that uniform is part of the Raider family. That’s how it goes.